On Wednesday, Dr Henderson and I took 60 students from senior History on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear Elizabeth Eckford talk, along with 750 other high school students from the region. It is the first time that she has travelled abroad from the USA. 

Elizabeth was one of the Little Rock 9 who tried to enter the previously racially segregated Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, following federal desegregation laws. Governor Faubus and his state troopers held them back. Elizabeth did not get the message to meet with the other students, so found herself in the middle of an angry, hostile mob from the white community.  She heard one of them threaten to lynch her and hang her from a tree; she was spat at in the face.

President Eisenhower was moved by the iconic photo of Elizabeth Eckford in the midst of the angry mob above, amidst wider reports of violence and racial intimidation. He sent down 1000 federal troops to escort the students into the school.  The troops remained as protection for the students inside the school the following year as they attended classes. 

The students found the morning powerful and inspiring. They took on board Elizabeth's personal message that to be silent or to turn away in the face of injustice is almost worse than being the open perpetrator of violence. Those were the people that hurt her the most. We were struck by how humble Elizabeth is. She sees the famous photo of her as merely symbolic of the wider struggle for black civil rights, and her life as that of an ordinary person. What a fantastic presentation.